Korean slang profile
스펙 푸어
seupek pueo
Someone whose finances are strained by the cost of building education, scores, experience, and other credentials needed for employment.
Someone whose finances are strained by the cost of building education, scores, experience, and other credentials needed for employment.
- Expanded form
- Not documented
- Other spellings
- 스펙푸어
- Earliest source found
- Dec 5, 2012
- Documented trend period
- Not verified
This is the earliest source we have verified, not the date the term was coined.
01Examples, with English translations
- Example by Julimmal
수강료 부담이 커지자 스펙 푸어라는 말이 실감 났어.
As course fees became burdensome, the term 스펙 푸어 really hit home.
02Documented history
- 2012-12-05“2012년 신어 자료집”, published by the National Institute of Korean Language, included the headword and definition.[1]
03Origin & word formation
The National Institute of Korean Language’s “2012년 신어 자료집” lists the expression and explains its meaning. Its original creator and exact date of creation have not been verified.
Evidence for the origin explanationMedium
The headword, definition, and examples of usage on PDF page 42 were directly compared. This is based on a single collection; the older article texts quoted there were not directly checked. The earliest verified date is the collection’s publication date, given on the copyright page on PDF page 70.
04Sources
Original titles and links are preserved. An English translation does not replace the original source.
- 2012년 신어 자료집 — PDF 42쪽 (국립국어원)Published Dec 5, 2012Original source checked Nov 14, 2026